Please Be Quiet Nairobi 2024

Inside the halls of the Oceanblue Taeick Hotel, an unusual calm settled over the tables as competitors prepared for a specialised programme dedicated entirely to concentration and calculation. Unlike high-energy open tournaments packed with simultaneous solving across dozens of stations, this gathering demanded absolute silence for its technical slate. The quiet environment provided the backdrop for Please Be Quiet Nairobi 2024, held on December 22, 2024, bringing precision events to the heart of the Kenyan capital.

For local competitor Rayan Parmar, stepping up to the tables in Nairobi, Kenya meant competing on home territory in a focused test of mental endurance. Representing Kenya, Parmar faced an intense schedule featuring three demanding disciplines: 3x3x3 Blindfolded, 3x3x3 Fewest Moves, and 3x3x3 Multi-Blind. The small field placed every attempt under close scrutiny, turning the single-day WCA competition into an intimate contest between two dedicated solvers aiming for personal milestones and official rankings.

The 3x3x3 Fewest Moves event proved to be the setting for Parmar's major domestic breakthrough of the day. In this discipline, competitors receive a scrambled Rubik's Cube and spend up to an hour formulating the shortest possible sequence of rotations to return the puzzle to its solved state. Parmar constructed a successful run across the rounds, recording an individual best single of 52 moves while piecing together a three-attempt mean of 58.00 moves.

That final mark of 58.00 moves secured an official Kenyan national record average for Parmar, giving the home nation a fresh benchmark in the discipline during the 2024 competitive season. Although Italy's Vincenzo Maria Gammino captured first place on the podium with a winning average of 36.00 moves and a sharp single of 28, Parmar earned second place while writing his name into the country's national record books.

The schedule also tested the competitors in 3x3x3 Blindfolded, a classic speedcubing discipline that requires memorising the state of the puzzle before donning a blindfold to execute the solution entirely from memory. Both entrants pushed through complex algorithms in the single round held at the venue. Gammino emerged on top with a winning single time of 6:07.97, while Parmar secured the second-place spot on the podium with a recorded single of 6:43.67, with neither solver registering a complete three-solve average.

The demands intensified further during the 3x3x3 Multi-Blind event, where a solver attempts to memorise and solve multiple puzzles in succession without sight. Parmar was the lone entrant to step forward for the challenge at the competition. The discipline carries unforgiving margins where any small deviation during execution results in unsolved cubes. Parmar finished with a DNF result on his attempt, nevertheless collecting first place in the event standings as the sole competitor.

Over the course of the single-day cubing competition, the two participants contested three total rounds across three specialized formats. Across all events, Kenya secured three podium finishes while Italy earned two, with Gammino taking top honours in two categories and Parmar adding his name to the winners list in multi-blind. The technical focus made the gathering distinct from standard tournaments where traditional speed cubing and rapid 3x3 results dominate the schedule.

As the final scorecards were signed at the Oceanblue Taeick Hotel, Please Be Quiet Nairobi 2024 concluded having delivered both international victories and domestic milestones. Gammino's disciplined solving earned multiple titles, while Parmar's national record mean in fewest moves marked a notable highlight for the host country. The quiet showdown in Nairobi demonstrated the patience and analytical depth required at the highest levels of blindfolded and efficiency solving.